Monday, 24 September 2012

A story I first wrote about a month ago has finally been picked up by a wider jewish press. Adam Levick of the excellent CIF Watch website berates (along with other websites) the mass media's differentiated response when a small scale arson and grafiti involving no violence, can be, possibly, ascribed to jews,

Of course the Latrun arson became a cause celebre in aid of further demonising Israel and 'settlers' whereas this serious attack against christians, for the third time was ignored. I didn't expect anything else to happen, as the mass media likes to reserve its bile for jews.

My interest was rather in why the Catholic authorities in Israel were so eager to repress their own story, as they have done an article by ex Latin 'Patriarch' Michel Sabbah an apologist for suicide bombers. He has been in Gaza pleading with Hamas to go easy on christians, not to forcibly convert them. The article reporting his trip which lauds Hamas and berates Israel was buried in the German language:

I say to all the islamic forces and groups in Gaza: remain true to your islam and take it upon yourselves to protect christians, and not to convert them to islam.

My conclusion, since proved by one Father Aridah is that these prelates are still the same, unreconstructed haters of jews. Israel is for them fair game even if Israel protects Catholics whilst christians are being attacked and slowly ethnically cleansed from Palestinian Authority areas, as happens everywhere else in the arab and muslim world. They care less for their persecuted bretheren than for attacking jews. Of course they hope that if the church shows its hostility to Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood and the PA along with other assorted muslim zealots will go easier on their people. It hasn't happened in history, hasn't happened in the last ten years in Iraq, Gaza and the PA territories and isn't likely to happen in future

As regards the Latrun 'price tag' arson, the CIF article says that:

"The desecration, thought to be perpetrated
by an Israeli Jew angry over the evacuation of Migron in the West Bank........... "

I think we should be very wary of accepting this incident on face value. With Qana and 'poor' Muhammed Dura who was very much alive after his death, the 'rocketed ' ambulance along with very many other incidents invented for camera in mind, we need to realise that our enemies are constantly concocting provocations which the mass media, often alerted in advance will pick up and run with.

The children were used to stop the car that had just swerved to avoid them, and to stone it

It is to me suspicious that a group of settlers would single out a
christian institution for attack. Christians don't really register much
on settler radar who see only the daily attacks by muslims upon them, through stonings of their cars, of attempted and successful stabbings, of infiltration of jewish villages in Judea and Samaria where the murderers never discriminate between young, sick or old. The attackers do however try to avoid the soldiers and the guards whilst going about their bloody work.

The foolish youths who go in for price tag attacks will head for the nearest arab
village, not go miles out of their way at night to an obscure Latrun monastery quietly nestled out in the hills where they would be heard by the monks, reported and caught by a police patrol as they returned to the surfaced main road.

There was a previous arson attack in an arab village of Tuba Zangriya which was used to besmirch settlers: The reporting of the Tuba Zangriya attack was lapped up by Reuters amongst others, including the Israeli press, and even Peres condemned settlers for an attack which they didn't commit:

In the burning of the mosque to the ground, hebrew graffitti was used indicating a price tag attack. But all was not as it seemed. Whilst Israeli reporters recounted the arab version of what had happened in the same manner as did the mass media.

Firstly the Price tag inscription was written in carbon which meant that the perpetrators had waited around until the wood carbonized, not a clever thing to do if you are jewish and burning down a mosque far off the beaten track and in an arab village! Our israeli sleuth masterfully unveils the deception lapped up by the world's media. Of course here explanation has sunk without trace in the blogosphere.

It took me a while to find the links to the Elder article. The search term that eventually got it was "elder of ziyon mosque burning." There are no other jewish blogs or new sites that after an hour of searching have seen fit to reproduce this material refuting another blood libel against settlers.

Questions about the mosque arson at Tuba Zangaria
Israeli blog "Brilliant Disguise" has an intriguing article about the burning of the mosque in Tuba Zangaria in October.

The author, Gal Chen, is not a settler or even a rightist. She is against the settlements. But when this "price tag" attack was reported in October, a number of things bothered her - so she started researching it.

The first thing she noticed is that the village has a history of violence, corruption, intra-clan feuds and smuggling. Two years ago the office of the Jewish head of the town council appointed by Israel's Interior Ministry was hit with a hail of bullets.

Chen went to Tuba Zangaria to see it for herself.

It is not an easy village to travel to, especially for any settlers. It is really two villages - Tuba on the bottom of the mountain and Zangaria on top. The only way to get to Zangaria is to go through Tuba.

The village itself is in the Galilee, not very close to Judea and Samaria.

In Tuba itself, the mosque is easily visible and accessible - but it was untouched. The arsonists apparently spent the extra ten minutes to go up the mountain to find a much less prominent mosque to burn.

There are houses surrounding the mosque. Chen wondered how outsiders could have made it to this inaccessible mosque in a small village without residents noticing, as well as how no one smelled the smoke or heard the fire before it became so large.

Here is the graffiti that seemed to prove this was a "price tag" attack:

The words say "[Price] tag" "Palmer" "Revenge", referring to the murder of Asher Palmer and his son in September.

But Chen noticed that the words were not written with spray paint, as is
usual with this sort of vandalism - but with charred wood from the fire
itself. She wonders how the arsonists could have forgotten a can of
spray paint.

Not only that, but the diagonal pattern of the graffiti indicates that it was written after the fire had already blackened the wall.

Chen asked the villagers how anyone could have driven to the village
without being noticed. They admitted that they are vigilant to see
strange vehicles, especially at night, and conjectured that the
arsonists walked there from the fields.

Which would mean that they decided to carry gallons of gasoline up a
mountain, filled with thorns and stones, to get to an inaccessible
mosque, in a crime-ridden Galilee village, surrounded by houses, miles
from Judea and Samaria. Residents who live next door did not notice the
fire until about half of the mosque was burned and destroyed, and yet
the criminals managed to wait there long enough for the fire to cool
down so they could write "Price tag/Palmer/Revenge" afterwards.

A few days later, village youths set fire to the local council building -
led by a retired IDF general - and he fled, fearing for his life.

Chen ends her post without any accusations, but wondering about how the
Israeli media at the scene jumped to conclusions without asking any of
these questions.

I'm not by nature paranoid, but Israel's enemies really are out to get it. With so much invention of 'crimes' by jews, we need a healthy skepticism, something Mr Peres amongst many other Israelis, especially journalists seems to be lacking.

So who actually carried out the burning of a monastery door in Latrun? There is every chance that it was the work of either a local arab or even one of the monks themselves. We need to understand the forces arrayed against Israel. They understand that thirst of the media for stories that demonise Israel, and there is very possibly at least one amongst the hebrew proficient Latin community who, possibly without his community's cognizance, is not loathe to help along the anti-Israel cause by way of a burned door and a little scribbling in hebrew.

Having explored Latin Patriarchate antisemites and their works recently, we must remind ourselves that there are millions of christians out there who do recognise the evil of sacrificing jews in the vain hope that muslim states will treat christians a little better. It hasn't happened yet and christian communities throughout the middle east and islamic world are under attack. They are being ethnically cleansed and their communities will all but cease to exist by the end of this century. Apart from Israel, thousands of years of christian life will be erased from arab countries, just as happened to arab jews last century.The founder of the European Coalition for Israel Tomas Sandel is just one amongst many christians who realise that jews are not the enemy. We have a shared culture, morals and ideals even if our religions took different paths, and it is the Jewish State which protects its christians, allows them to worship freely and live in peace and harmony with their jewish neighbours in Israel. The christian community in Israel is thriving.

Christians who think for themselves know that supporting Israel is the moral thing to do both for Israel and the cause of christianity. If only the World Council of Churches and the Vatican would support christians rather than foment strife and the slander of jews and Israel christians would not be packing their bags in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia and everywhere else in the muslim world.

Christians have been failed by their leadership. Rather than lobby the EU and the USA to withhold funds whilst their bretheren in the Palestinian Authority are harassed, injured and have their lands stole by people connected to armed PA groupings, they hold forth constantly on Israel's supposed wrongs towards palestinian arabs.

Notwithstanding the forces arrayed against us, Tomas Sandell is being too pessimistic about the power of the UN and other nations to impose its will on Israel. Israel is a nation that although assailed on all sides, despite a large international will to see it harmed, has grown in strength from year to year.

Against all the odds tiny Israel came into existence, has not only survived but become a power that can not be defeated on the battlefield. The only way Jerusalem could become part of a muslim arab state is if jews themselves do not wise up to the extent of the enmity, of the bad intentions of those who cry that they want 'justice' and an end to 'occupation'.

We will lose Jerusalem only if another Olmert were to come along and decide to give Jerusalem away. Olmert of course is a corrupt man awaiting sentence who has little understanding of his own history, culture or religion. Football and acceptance by his peers in europe and the US is his passion . Israelis have now grown up, are chastened by the rejection by arabs of peace and are less likely to allow leaders to give away strategic and historical lands for the sake of an illusory peace. Even Olmert's offer of Jerusalem was not enough for palestinian arabs who will accept no less than the destruction of Israel. Our enemies won't get Jerusalem just as they won't manage to wrest the strategic hill areas of Judea and Samaria away from Israel. Our enemies have shot their bolt. The west is wakening up to them, Israelis have woken to the real wishes of those who would dismember Israel. And christians with open minds and good will are also beginning to understand the threat is not only against jews, but to christians (and moderate muslims ).

The Christian legions can win Israel’s diplomatic warTomas Sandell

One morning a few years from now, the world may suddenly wake up to discover that a new Islamic state called Palestine has been established on what used to be Jewish heartland, and with the Old City of Jerusalem as its capital. This could in fact happen without a single bullet ever being fired or any negotiations being conducted, and while those concerned about the future of Israel were fast asleep because they had not understood the nature of the new battle.

The battle for Jerusalem is no longer being fought in the trenches of Judea and Samaria, but in courtrooms in places like the International Court of Justice in the Hague or conference halls in the UN in New York and Geneva. The Israeli foreign minister has called it ”diplomatic terrorism.” Other calls it ”international lawfare,” and as in any war the first casualty is truth.

What friends of Israel need today is a strategy to defend Israel from this web of vicious lies, slander and twisting of international law. The first step in such a strategy is to recognize the fact that the war is in progress and that Israel runs the risk of losing it.

This week a new chapter of this ongoing diplomatic war will begin at the UN in New York as the Palestinian Authority asks the UN General Assembly for a non-state membership, with an eye to settle the territorial terms for a two-state solution along the pre-1967 lines with East Jerusalem as capital.

The PA already enjoys full member status in UNESCO. Membership in the UN organization for culture and education makes it possible for the PA delegation to have representation in a number of UN international conferences and committees that help write international law.

One of their first measures at UNESCO was to add the Church of the Nativity to the list of World Heritage Sites as a Palestinian holy site. This was despite the protests of those Christian denominations which had been given the custody of the birthplace of Jesus Christ. One did not need much diplomatic experience to understand that the decision was a political statement and had nothing to do with culture. On the contrary, during the short period between 1948 and 1967 when the Old City was under ”moderate” Jordanian rule, 55 synagogues and talmudic academies were destroyed or desecrated. So much for cultural preservation.

A vote for the PA as a non-member state in the UN General Assembly could set the territorial terms for a future two-state solution along the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital. By using this tactic the PA would in fact have pre-defined its borders without ever having had to bring the question to the negotiating table, but simply by manipulating international law. Once Palestine is recognized as a sovereign member state in the UN with East Jerusalem as its capital, the consequences for Israel would of course be disastrous.The United Nations building in New York. (photo credit: CC BY WorldIslandInfo.com/Flikr)

The United Nations building in New York. (photo credit: CC BY WorldIslandInfo.com/Flikr)

It is true that Israel is threatened on more than one front. The number 1 concern in Jerusalem is of course the nuclear threat from Iran. A chemical weapons attack from Syria is another one. The Arab Spring is quickly turning into an ice-cold winter. However this should not prevent us from also taking the ”soft war” conducted by international lawyers, diplomats and activists seriously. Though they may speak softly, their final objectives are no different from those of militant Islam, namely the total destruction of the Jewish state. In order to prevent this from happening we need to take action now.

For the last eight years I have been privileged to lead a Christian organization called European Coalition for Israel. As people of faith, our first calling is to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Though some may smile at this rather unorthodox approach to international lawfare, they would do well to remember the lessons of the Cold War. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin once sarcastically asked his advisors, ”how many legions does the Pope have?” implying that the religious leader lacked any real influence. A few decades later, the Communist system was brought down by a Catholic workers’ revolt inspired by the late Pope John Paul II. The Pope, and the Christian workers, had no military power, but they had the gifts of faith, prayer and perseverance to stand for what they believed to be the truth. In an increasingly hostile environment in Europe and around the world, we need these same qualities.

There is currently a reservoir of hundreds of millions of Christian believers around the world who love Israel and want to speak on her behalf. In order to mobilize these ”legions,” we need to give them tools for information, education and advocacy. Whereas some people cannot be bothered with facts as they have already made up their minds, most people are open-minded and will listen to a second opinion. We have countless examples of how people change their mind once they are given correct information.

Social media has truly revolutionized the global public sphere and we can now reach millions without constantly having to struggle to get the attention of a largely hostile mainstream media. The more informed we are, the easier it is to convey our message to our friends, our elected members of parliament and to the media.

The battle of international lawfare can be won. The messengers are already in place. The key to victory is simply telling the truth where media lies and the perversion of law have prevailed in the past.

Friday, 21 September 2012

Another
palestinian arab hypocrite Archbishop Michel Sabbah “patriarch” of
Israel's catholics who blames all christian woes on Israel (but in
the relative obscurity of the german language begs Hamas run Gaza to
leave) christians in peace)

“But there is no Muslim persecution of Christians, and in fact they share
the same hope of one day having an independent state. “

As well as denying that muslims persecute christians, Michel Sabbah the former head of the Catholic Church
in Israel is an apologist for indiscriminate arab terror against
Israelis, able to understand the suicide bomber and his indiscriminate murder, but not his indiscriminately chosen Israeli civilian victims, normal people, young and old torn apart:

Do
you see suicide bombers as true martyrs?According to Islam,
they are. It’s necessary to treat each one according to his own
principles. As Muslims see it, suicide bombers are giving their lives
for their country, to gain their liberty. As a Christian, suicide is
not permissible in any case, even for your country. You may not kill
yourself.

The Israelis, too, are under attack. They are
being overwhelmed with continuing acts of terrorism.Under
attack, by whom? Israel occupies and attacks someone else’s land
and finds resistance. Israel is not being attacked. When Israel
ceases to attack and to occupy [the Palestinian territories], they
won’t suffer any further counterattacks. If Israel wants to end
violence, it only needs to end occupation. I’m 200 percent certain
of this, and I’ve said it many times.

The Catholic church in Israel is unreconstructed, an organisation of
jew hating clerics indoctrinating new generations of catholics with
their hatred of jewsvwhilst enjoying safety in Israel, the only country in
the middle east where christians are safe. The Catholic Church in
Israel may look around the middle east and see christian communities
everywhere being ethnically cleansed. By the end of this century
Israel will along with the Lebanon be alone in having sizeable
christian communities. It is hard however not to see Lebanon's
christian community as also being doomed to extinction. When their
expulsion will finally happen is anyone's guess. It could happen in a
few years or in a hundred. And Sabbah's successors will still be
spouting the old hatreds against jews, the lies about 'occupation' as
the justification for the killing of jews.

Sabbah in his 2003 interview could not
even find it in his heart to condemn palestinian arab suicide bombers
who were placing their bombs not to kill soldiers, but against kids
in the Dolphinarium discotheque, in cafes, even in a hotel were a
passover service was being held for pensioners. Not one word of
sympathy for jews being torn apart by bombs. This representative of the Catholic Church
describes arab terror directed at
Israeli civilians as 'resistance'.

Of course Sabbah blamed
terror on the 'occuptation', saying that it would all end when
Israel withdrew. Israel did that when it left Gaza, and since then
over 9,000 missiles have landed in Israel. Even Israeli humanitarian
food convoys into Gaza get targeted for attack. And of course before 1967 Israel did not 'occupy' Judea and Samaria or Gaza, so what was the reason then for the constant terror and threats to destroy Israel from arabs? The fact is that even if Israel consisted of one square kilometre of land around Tel-Aviv, that would also be 'occupied'. Sabbah and his fellow jew haters will not allow jews anywhere to express their nationality. The Catholic Church in europe denied jews their very existence for two thousand years. Nothing has changed. Sabbah isn't so much a palestinian arab as someone who uses his christian religion as a vehicle to attack jews.

In Sabbah's latest speech in Gaza
(reported only in German) he asks for christians not to be converted
by force whilst trying to ingratiate himself with the islamist
murderers there.

Sabbah who blames Israel for all
christian ills, can not bring himself to admit that his 2003
statement that christians are safe in arab lands was wrong. He seems
ignorant of the christians of Iraq and Egypt, of those in Pakistan and Indonesia, and has no words of
condemnation for those in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority who constantly attack christians, have
murdered them and stolen their lands:

“In
Arab countries there is no persecution of Christians. I don’t speak
of Pakistan, but in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon—no. Historically
there have been some massacres, beginning when Europe entered the
Mideast. ”

Sabbah says Christians are living in
fear, but that Hamas and the other islamist terrorists have supposedly
nothing to do with this fear, “Christen in Gaza leben in Angst. “ (
Gaza's christians must therefore be suffering from a Freudian “free
floating anxiety”, not based in any reality. With people like
Sabbah to help them, a man who can only talk about a supposedly
shared palestinian nationality which Hamas islamists don't subscribe
to, Gaza's christians are living on borrowed time.)

"Here in Gaza, it is the duty of Hamas
to defend the Christian presence and to ensure their continued
existence. In this sense, I say to all Islamic forces and movements
in Gaza remains your true Islam, commit to protecting the
Christians, and do not make them Muslims.

All Islamic forces in Gaza, Hamas,
Jihad, the Salafists and the people of the mission, all, whatever you
think of when you will be with Christians in Gaza or elsewhere faced,
I would say, are with us as their brothers, and if anyone says
otherwise, we will repeat it again and again and again say that we
are here for you, brethren, are Muslims and Palestinians. And see in
every Christian in Palestine of a believer and a creature of God, the
Creator of all things, the Christians and the Muslims as well as all
other people, and we are all his creatures, and God has given us the
same dignity. God guides whom He will, whatever He wants.

Each of us is a human being, a
believer, Muslim or Christian, a Palestinian, remains committed to
the unity and equality of all people, and for the unity and freedom
of our country.

The Catholic Church believes it will mitigate arab hostility to
christians by paying with Israeli coin. The stupidity of this belief,
that the more enmity that can be showered by the Catholic Church on
Israel the safer christians will be, has already been shown to be a
fallacy.

As the Vatican and its cardinals and multiplicity of clerics
continue their war against Israel, christianity is shrinking in the
middle east. The continuing disappearence of christians from the region has
nothing to do with jews or Israel, but much to do with christian clerics.

Tuesday, 18 September 2012

What is it with a religion which constantly demands respect for itself and its founder from those who don't subscribe to it? Why should I need to tread on coals every time think of Islam? I don't do that with my own religion, not with christianity, a religion that I can nowadays say without fear was founded upon hatred of jews, whose proponents carried out literally thousands of massacres against jews over the ages and whose representatives even nowadays are often engaged in a war of propaganda against jews and Israel. Anyone who has read the gospels of John or Mathew realises just how the charge of deicide was framed in order to justify the ostracizing and murder of jews.

And islams's founder was little better. The supposedly 'holy' Koran is full of hatred towards jews and christians and celebrates the killing of the jews of Medina. Jews are sometimes described positively in the Quran but usually they are described in a negative light as being untrustworthy and as being cursed,"And they say: Our
hearts are covered. Nay, Allah has cursed
them on account of their unbelief" [2.88],[4.46], "do not take the Jews
and the Christians for friends" [5.51], you shall always discover treachery
in them excepting a few of them; [5.13].

So it is hard to respect a religion that promotes hatred against me, but i'm not going to disparage it or its followers. If their religion makes them happy then all well and good. I don't know of any religion that is 'a religion of peace', certainly not christianity or islam but as long as their adherents refrain from violence against others, let them have their beliefs.

If christians or muslims wage a propaganda war against me, then I write about them and expose their writings to a wider public, wider than they would perhaps wish. And that is the wonderful thing about the internet. It is now much easier to get inside the head of an extremist, christian or muslim.

When a catholic priest Father Aridah travels to Germany of all places to poison minds against jews then the Latin Partriarchate which published the writeup exposes itself yet again as being an organisation that does not wish the Jewish People any good.

I don't feel violent towards this catholic institution, only a certain sadness that even now a catholic church institution can not let go of the old hatred towards jews. That a catholic priest, a supposedly righteous man could pen such deliberately lying propaganda about jews and Israel makes me pity him. All his religion, his culture and his education have not conspired to make Father Aridah truthful or to be a seeker after peace and reconciliation.

Christian propaganda nowadays does not however lead directly to violence as happened in the past when priests would whip up their congregations at easter time in order to beat up and kill jews. My grandfather fled abroad from such church inspired pogroms. I never knew him but he told my father about how his jewish community was in a state of terror at easter. If he could live through pogroms, I can cope with Father Aridah and his ilk.

Nowadays the violence is overwhelmingly as a result of muslims reacting to slights against their religion, real or imagined. Of course the maker of the film about islam's founder Muhammed meant his work to be disparaging and insulting. The furious mobs however can not deny that the facts are as stated, that Muhammed did abuse children, and women and he was so proud of his murder of whole communities of jews such as those of Medina that he put it in the Koran.

Mr Bassily or whatever his true name is might have been better advised not to make his film, but the fact is that for adherents of islam, there is always a pretext to become offended and violent. Just as with christians at easter and other times there is always a reasons to go killing those who by their very existence offend you.

In India recently a newspaper published an article that was considered 'disrespectful ' and which led to violence on the part of the outraged muslims. If the world was run on such lines of allowing violence whenever we feel upset then the result would be anarchy. What did the muslim leader who demanded an apology from the newspaper in question hope to achieve? Such an apology backed by violence is worth nothing. 'Respect' born out of threats of violence is nothing but an expression of fear. It is resented and can itself become the reason for yet more unpleasantness at a later date. Violence seems to be a regular occurrence in the area concerned.

Another act of hurting the sentiments of Muslims came to surface in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. On August 18, a Hindi daily published some disrespectful content regarding the Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) which led to anger and frustration among the local Muslims. As a protest, Muslims burnt the copies of the newspapers on a large scale. The act also gave way for many rumours which made the situation very tense and marketplaces witnessed chaos soon after the news broke out. The local Muslims under the leadership Maulana Mufti Mohammad Ayub, Rector, Mumtaz Deeni Darsgah, Jamia Naeemia, immediately contacted the newspaper authorities and demanded an apology. The newspaper agreed to do so in the next edition and the apology got published in the issue of August 19. A case has also been registered in Nagphani Thana.

It is time for islam and its proponents to grow up, to
realize that violence is not the answer to those who upset you. Those
who wish to silence critics of islam through violence and threats of
violence do no justice to their own cause. They should learn from Israelis and jews who live with constant threats and vicious writings against them without reacting violently.

An example of the hatred of jews was seen recently at the Fatah 47th Conference where the Mufti of Jerusalem called for genocide against the Jewish People.

As is usual with film that is too embarrassing for genocidal muslims, the film has been taken off youtube. It is however posted here. The Mufti of Jerusalem's incitement against jews should be seen by anyone in the least interested in the Arab ('Palestinian')-Israel Conflict. Only people who have seen the Mufti rant on about the extermination of the Jewish People will understand why after all Israel's concessions over the years, there is still no peace in the Holy Land. There is no peace to be had with muslim states, only state of ceasefire, until the next round. The more punishing the lesson, the less likely arabs will want war against Israel. But Israel never plays according to the arab rules. Israel fights humanely, tries its hardest to avoid any loss of arab life, attempts to avoid killing civilians. Arabs can not understand this as when they fight, they aim to kill civilians, the more the merrier. I would never promote the killing of arab civilians, but when the Israeli army has a lawyer attached to every company of the IDF to tell the soldiers what they can and can not do, there must be something wrong. War is not proportionate, and human rights lawyers mixing in on every battlefield decision means that Israeli troops fight with one hand tied.
The idea of war is to win, and if it is harder for Israel to win then it takes longer, and actually prolongs the suffering of the enemy civilian population. Israel must make its priority to win, and as in the past, win fast, without for example daily truces to send humanitarian aid to the enemy. No other country has ever done this, and that Israel does this shows it misunderstands the main rule of war, to win.
That Israel did not finish the Cast Lead war with a clear defeat and toppling of Hamas has lead to thousands more rockets fired at Sderot, at Netivot, Ashdod and Beer Sheva to name the main sufferers.
This is the real human rights crime, that Israel has allowed these cities and towns to be sacrificed so that the enemy does not get hurt too badly.
Israel must look again at its priorities, and these should be that Every Israeli will sleep soundly in his bed other than in time of war. But that doesn't happen.
Hamas sees to it that children will have their first day of school disrupted by rockets, that the sabbath peace will be torn apart by rockets, and parents will never know whether a rocket will greet their children as they return from school. The Hammas and Jihad terrorists know civilian patterns of life in Israel along with the jewish holidays, and they prepare specially for those.
Non muslim countries have not been exposed to the levels of violence that are normal in the middle east, against women and against other religions. But the world is learning about the problem and the more that
violence is ascribed to muslims and islam, the less respect will be
gained for that religion. There is a growing resentment in western countries of islam inspired violence.

Muslims are not everywhere violent but where they are it is time for the world to hold their leaders to account. Israel should have prosecuted the Mufti of Jerusalem for his hate speech. The man should have been given time inside a jail in order to reflect on where such language leads. That those who advocate violence can get away with their actions because of the high positions they hold means that violence becomes all but inevitable.

Monday, 17 September 2012

Father Aridah travels to Germany to continue the legacy of Dr Goebbels

The Vatican's Latin Patriarchate continues its propaganda war against
jews with a conference in Germany to indoctrinate Germans against Israel. This jordanian catholic Father Firas Aridah begins his diatribe by saying he was 'unwillingly' drawn into this on-going conflict. Going by the rest of his utterances, this is the priest's first lie. I reproduce without changes most of his article entitled 'Situation of Christians in the Holy Land presented in Germany' with my comments.

The Latin Patriarchate must be very proud of Father Aridah , a credit to this catholic institution's overall propaganda effort against Israel.

This effort against Israel is of course mounted from within Israel itself, taking advantage of the protections Israel affords christians and their institutions. No christian order would dare show such ingratitude anywhere else in the middle east for fear of the results.

DUDERSTADT (Germany) – On
September 4, 2012, Father Firas Aridah, pastor of Saint Joseph Parish
in Jifna, gave a conference about the situation of the Christian
Community in the Holy Land. Below is the text of his presentation.

I want to thank you for the honor of being able to speak with you this morning at this vibrant gathering here in Duderstadt about the situation of the Christian community in the Holy Land.
My name is Father Firas Aridah from Jordan. I am a Roman Catholic
priest of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which serves the
Christian community in Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and
Cyprus.

It is a land sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims; all three faith
communities have existed there for centuries. Historically it was home
to many nations, and now, in the modern context, it is a home to
Israelis and Palestinians. One land, two peoples, three faiths; each
rooted in conviction and vigor for Jerusalem, each who need to be
reminded that there can be no exclusive claim which will be accepted.

Father Aridah wishes to water down the jewish link with the Land of Israel as just being
one of three communities, not even being the uppermost in his order.
This priest might know that jews 'existed' there for thousands of years,
not centuries, that it isn't 'a' home to Israelis but 'the' home.
Palestinian arabs have only been around for a hundred years at most, and
their nationality has been variously defined by them as being part
of Egypt, part of Jordan or even part of Syria. Now of course palestinian
arab leaders claim the whole of Israel under the so-called 'right of
return', a euphemism for destroying the Jewish State.

The Land of Israel
is not sacred to Islam as the Koran itself accepts ( Koran states (Sura
5:21) that God granted the Land of Israel
to the Children of Israel and ordered them to settle there. In addition,
it is predicted that before the end of days, God will bring the
Children of Israel to retake possession of the Land, gathering them from
the different countries and nations (Sura 17:104) ). There is no
mention of Jerusalem in the Koran whereas the Bible mentions it over 600
times. Israel and Jerusalem are part and parcel of the jewish prayer
service.

What I had in mind when I came to serve in Jerusalem, was to focus
all my energy in performing the ‘normal duties’ of a parish
priest—tending to the needs of the Christian faithful and the community
at large while being able to attract the youth as you are doing here. It
was there, in the midst of my ‘normal duties’, where I became
unwillingly drawn into this on-going conflict. It was never my intention
to get involved in politics – and I am still resolute to leave the
politics to the politicians – but my focus is the people. And in my
service to the people, I dealt with the occupation.

With the occupation
came the confiscation of lands and the demolition of homes. With the
confiscation of lands and demolition of homes came the building of walls
of separation in the name of security inside the west bank, losing 8 %
from our land not the borders of 1967.

This Jordanian / palestinian arab priest talks of 'occupation' but he
doesn't define it. This definition is deliberately left loose, designed for non specialist
western minds who think he is talking about Israelis who settle the
ancient biblical lands of Judea and Samaria ('WB'). But he is really
talking about the whole of Israel. This priest denies the right of jews
to any part of the Land of Israel. To him the whole of Israel is 'occupied'.

The priest's interest is in the
destruction of the State of Israel, not of so-called 'occupation' of
Judea and Samaria which in any case is mostly controlled by palestinian
arabs. Jewish settlements cover only around 3% of the land and has
rarely if ever involved confiscation or destruction of palestinian arab
property.
The jews settled on the hills, on unproductive land not settled by arabs. This supposedly uninvolved Jordanian talks about "our land ", and "stealing our
own
water". Another lie by this priest who was anything but an outsider to
this conflict. As a Jordanian he sees himself as a palestinian arab,
which is only right as Jordan was cut off by Britain from the lands
mandated by the League of Nations in 1922 as a homeland for the Jews.
78% of the Mandated lands were given illegally by Britain to an arab
sheikh they wished to reward. Jordan with around 50-70% of its
population being palestinian arabs is in fact Palestine, and most palestinian arabs possess Jordanian nationality, as does their president, Mr Abbas.

Faridah denies Israel has security concerns. Obviously he is unaware of the hundreds of stonings and other terror attacks against Israelis each month by palestinian arabs. The Security barrier, which is mostly a fence, was built to stop arab terror that killed over a thousand Israelis in the so-called second Intifada in the years 2001- 2002. The barrier has stopped the suicide bombers killing israelis.

With the building of walls of
separation came the destruction of olive orchards and stealing our own
water. These ‘normal duties’ of a parish priest have been particularly
painful in Palestine.
Olive trees are a main source of livelihood for Palestinians. They
are used to derive products such as: olive oil, soap and wood crafts.
These trees and this livelihood are thousands of years old, handed down
from one generation to the next. The groves are a lifeline with great
significance and value in our culture. In the aftermath of the 26 foot
high wall that now surrounds most of the West Bank and with new border
enforcement, people can no longer get to their farms. Families have been
divided; many have lost their jobs or have become deprived of advanced
medical care at hospitals which are no longer accessible. As a priest, a
pastor of souls, my conscience and my calling drive me to be “a voice
for those who have no voice and to defend the weak and the oppressed.” (Patr. Sabbah. Seek Peace and Pursue it. 1998)
How then can I say nothing as this tragedy befalls the people who I am
serving? How can I remain silent when the Christian community I am
serving is disappearing because of this occupation?

Our priest protests he can't remain silent about wrongs supposedly committed by jews, yet he remains silent as to the palestinian arab terror that forced the building of the security fence. The fence was rerouted by Israel's Supreme Court a number of times after appeals by arab villages being not about taking arab land but about shutting out suicide bombers. Every country in the world has a right to defend its citizens but his priest doesn't think jews have that right. Until 2002 and the suicide and other bombings there was no fence and arabs could come and go as they pleased inside Israel.

And his lies extend to his 'explanation' for the troubles of christians in palestinian controlled territiories. Despite the Jewish state protecting all its minorities, jews get all the blame for christian sufferings at the hands of the muslim contolled Palestinian Authority. There is no mention of those muslims who convert to christianity, of how they are threatened and killed.Abdulla Yusuf a convert to christianity just managed to escape this fate himself.

The current situation we face is this: Today, we have fewer
Christians in the Holy Land than we had in 1947 going from 8% to 1.6% in
2000. When at one point we numbered 27,000 Christians in Jerusalem, now
we are only 9,000 Christians. Our people are emigrating, our presence
is threatened and if the trend continues, our future is moving towards
extinction. This is impacted by the fact that there are over 550,000
Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Many of our
villages are under military control, with restrictions on movement from
one village to the next, meaning that we have immediate family who have
become separated from each other. Our lands are still being confiscated
all around us to build more Israeli settlements or to expand
settlements that already exist. Recently Israel has confiscated around
three thousand acres from 59 Christian families in Beit Jala to continue
expansion of the Gilo settlement and the separation wall where we lost
more than 9 % from the land of west bank.

Our priest talks about Beit Jala without mentioning the firing from there on Gilo by terrorists. Father Aridah mentions that there are 1.6% christians down from 8% in 1947 in the 'Holy Land' (does that include Jordan as well, he doesn't say?). But christians in Israel during that period have risen from 34,000 to 150,000. He also doesn't mention the christians of Bethlehem who are now less than 7,500 down from 20,000 in 1995 when Israel gave the city to the Palestinian Authority. As for Jerusalem's christians decreasing, that has happened whilst the overall muslim population has gone in that time from 35,000 to over a quarter of a million. The reason for a reduction in christians should rather be looked at in relation to their living in the mainly muslim east of the city rather than to Israel's policies which if they had affected the number of christians adversely, would also be expected to adversely affect the numbers of muslims. This has however not happened.The only conclusion can be that Father Aridah dishonestly twists the figures to blame Israel for a reduction in christian numbers when the opposite has happened. Where the results of Israel's policies can be found, i.e. in the protection of its minorities, this has in fact meant a vastly increased number of christians. Unlike anywhere else in the middle-east, christians are thriving in Israel.

Our lying father Aridah ignores the true reasons for christian suffering in palestinian areas and the middle east, and by this shows that his motivation comes not from a genuine worry for christians but out of hatred for the Jewish People. Why else would he distort the history of discrimination against christians by muslims, of the attacks, the theft of christian property by PA connected thugs, and of the ethnic cleansing of christians from palestinian arab ruled territories?

As our lying catholic priest well knows, Jews aren't the reason for the flight of christians from palestinian arab areas and the wider middle east, but islamic intolerance is. The proof is everywhere, in Iraq where a million christians have fled in the last ten years, in Egypt where a quarter of a million Coptic Christians have fled in the last two years of the so-called Arab Spring alone.

Father Aridah can not find it within him to mention any of this. Attacks on christians by muslims are frequent and even he can not be unaware of them as one of the latest in a series of attacks was reported on the Latin Patriarchate website, albeit without mentioning palestinian muslim arabs by name. Only Israelis and jews will ever be identified for censure, however unfair, however untrue.

The recent development of clashes between settlers and Israeli civil
authorities is proof that settlements are a phenomenon which has grown
far beyond Israel’s grasp. They violate the laws which have been put in
place to protect them and they unquestionably threaten peace and
stability in the region. As the book of Proverbs says: “Where there is no hope, the people perish”
– an entire generation of Israelis and Palestinians have grown up
witnessing and experiencing violence, occupation, separation, and
hatred. There continue to be fewer and fewer opportunities to interact.
There is heightened suspicion and apprehension on both sides and so, our
people deeply feel a sense of hopelessness and despair.

This priest dares take the moral high ground, a representative of a Church that was responsible for millions of dead jews throughout the ages? There is no humility from this man just as there is almost no truth in what he says. If he knew anything about the settlements, he would know that they were placed in strategic areas so as to prevent arab countries again threatening the existence of Israel through surprise attack.
In 2006 Ariel Sharon withdrew all Israeli settlements from Gaza and since then Israel has been subjected to wave upon wave of rocket attacks, over 9,000 to date. Parts of the south of Israel are barely habitable because of the indiscriminate volleys of missiles raining down on jews.
If Israel was to dismantle the settlements in Judea and Samaria, we know better than ever, that missiles would be fired at jewish Jerusalem, at Tel-Aviv and Haifa. Israelis want peace. They don't have a death wish. Israelis know that the only reason arabs wish Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria is so that the rest of Israel can be attacked all the easier. Once Judea and Samaria was given to arabs, the demands would not stop. The next grievance would be framed and supported by new acts of terror against Israel.

In the midst of this unfortunate reality it falls on us to speak out
and remind everyone of the objective truth that is Jesus Christ. In the
words of our Patriarch Fouad Twal: “ultimately, Israelis and
Palestinians … must work out their differences in a just and righteous
manner, in ways that require painful compromises.” No, we the Christian
community of the Holy Land, the people of Calvary, will not allow our
hope to die. We today live the Gospel – we live the hope it promises.

Israel has had its fill of "painful compromises" for peace. All it gets in return is terror. Israel must now offer peace in return for peace, and harsh countermeasures in return for terror. Jews only know peace when they are willing to defend themselves. Israel won't be suckered again by its enemies, even by mealy mouthed catholic priests who distort our history.

We are walking towards our Lord with conviction and with faith not
allowing the huge obstacle of war, violence and occupation to hinder our
path. Be assured friends we are walking towards Jesus Chrsit and
nothing will keep us from him.
It is amazing to see that even in Gaza where our small Christian
community not only suffers from the occupation and economic sanctions
imposed by most of the free world – they also suffer from extremism and fanaticism caused by a lack of education.

This Father Aridah surely has some chutzpah to imply Israel is to blame Israel for the suffering of the Christian community in Gaza. He is obviously unaware of the forced conversions to islam, of the christian bookshop owner Rami Ayyad who was murdered after his bookshop was bombed some months earlier. In islamist Hamas run Gaza those responsible for islamist attacks on christians and on moderate muslims are never found.
Yet this Father Aridah blames Israel every time, with never a glance in the direction of islamic extremism. For shame.
And then the priests adds a lie of economic sanctions against Gaza when the opposite is true. The only limitation on Gaza is that ships can not dock there in order to prevent the mass importation of missiles. Only recently produce was exported from Gaza to Saudi Arabia.

And with all this they are determined to stay, determined to live where
Christianity has existed for two thousand years – no friends nothing
will stand between us and the Lord. We will not allow others to use our
voice. We will not stand for a
fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible which seeks to legitimize
the infringement of Palestinian rights, nor will we stand for Islamic
extremism.

Enough said from this lying and hypocritical representative of the Latin Patriarchate and his outpouring of hatred towards the Jewish People.

Jews wish nobody any harm, and Israel although subject to constant lies against it actually does more for palestinian arabs than any other country. Israel supplies most of the electricity needs in Gaza and in the Palestinian areas despite being owed hundreds of millions of dollars, gave the PA an advance on its tax dues recently (even whilst it spends its money subsidizing Hamas terrorists), and allowed hundreds of thousands of palestinian arabs to access Israel's beaches this year in a good will gesture for the feast of Eid.

If peace ever comes, it will be because Israel's enemies give up their attempts to destroy it. Israel will remain strong until then, will maintain its high morals and will continue its non-discriminatory policies which have seen the population of muslims and christians increase exponentially over the years.

Israel is a light unto the nations. Always has been, and always will be.When it comes to 'showing the other cheek', Israel does it time and again, year after year.

Thursday, 6 September 2012

I was surprised to see that IRIN the UN
human rights news site published an article about "Israeli communities
traumatized by Gaza rockets.”

There's quite a bit about how Israelis
suffer at the hands of the terrorists in Gaza.

Of course a neutral tone is taken as to
who initiated 'the recent violence' and the usual minimising of the
dangers from 'crude rockets' and of how few israelis get killed by
them.

Amongst all of this there is no
mention of or condemnation of Hamas terrorists and their allies for their human rights abuses in
firing rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas. No mention of
this being a War Crime against israelis carried out several times a
week. Human rights abuse is a phrase reserved only for Israel when it tries to defend its civilian population from arab terror.

There is however a mention in the article about Israeli casualties of the conflict of the UN
condemnation of Israel for being 'disproportionate'.

This is despite Israel not attacking indiscriminately and usually managing to avoid civilian
casualties despite the difficulties of finding arab terrorists who
hide amongst civilians, in houses and mosques, coming out only
briefly to fire their missiles before returning to their hiding
places.

So maybe it is too much to expect any
UN organisation, even one devoted to analysis, and in an article
discussing the indiscriminate rocket attacks, around 12,000 missiles
fired at israeli towns and cities now, to condemn anyone other than jews.

The piece begins by saying that
civilians don't want another Gaza 'offensive' to root out the terror.
No evidence is brought for this assertion. Sderot's mayor has called
for this a number of time as the missiles keep falling on his
battered community (the 'militants' choose strategic times such as
early morning, on the Shabbat so as to ruin the jewish day of rest,
or when children are going to and from school. A couple of weeks ago
the new school year started. No sooner had the children sat down on
the first morning of term, they had to shelter from an incoming
rocket).

Israeli civilians
living near the Gaza Strip are feeling the strain as a result of the
recent escalation of violence between militants in Gaza and the
Israeli army, and are calling for increased protection - though not
another Gaza offensive.

Meanwhile, Israeli communities living
in the southern district are increasingly anxious in the wake of the
recent violence.

Militants in Gaza fired at least 140 rockets (mostly crude, home-made
Qassams) and mortars at Israel during four days of fighting on 7-10
April, reported the Israeli army, during which hundreds of thousands of
Israelis took shelter in secure areas. Protective shelters are also
located in public places, like bus stops and playgrounds. Two Israeli
civilians were injured.

Most of the rockets fell in open areas, but several homes in the Eshkol region were hit.

During the same period the Israeli army launched a series of air
strikes, tank-shelling and live ammunition fire at numerous targets
throughout Gaza, killing 23 Palestinians, including 10 civilians, and
injuring 65 Palestinians, including 46 civilians, according to the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In the past UN officials have denounced israel’s disproportionate use of force against occupied Palestinian territory.

The UN likes to repeat the lie that Gaza is still 'occupied'. This is despite Israel's total withdrawal from there, and a border with Egypt.

Violence between Gaza militants and the Israeli army reignited in mid-March.

School bus hit

“I do not feel safe here after the school bus was attacked last week,” said Ronit.

The school bus in the southern district was hit by an anti-tank
rocket on 7 April, badly wounding the driver and a 16-year-old boy. It
had dropped off children from the kibbutz just minutes before the
attack.

Notice the passive tense, violence 'reignite' for Israel being attacked by Hamas rockets. And 'was hit' is used to describe the Hamas deliberate targeting of a school bus as opposed to the description of Israel's air force actively 'killing'. Note also the accepting without comment of the Hamas lies of supposedly not targeting civilians even when Hamas attacked a yellow, unmistakably marked school bus.

Hamas took credit for the attack that hit the school bus, but did
not intend to target children, Hamas deputy foreign minister Ghazi Hamad
in Gaza told IRIN.

The attack was a reprisal for the Israeli air force’s killing of three figures in Hamas’s military wing on 1 April.

“Hamas is against targeting civilians,” said Hamad, adding: “Israel
purposefully targets civilians in Gaza, and they have the military
capabilities to be sure of their targets.”

How can even the UN include such bare face lies as this at face value, without comment? Even the often anti-Israeli newspaper Haaretz pointed out that on the one occasion that Hamas apologized for killing civilians, it retracted the apology.

Historically, Hamas has characterized its rocket attacks against
Israel as part of its “resistance” to Israeli military occupation of
Palestinian land.

In the end this UN article whilst pretending,to sympathise with israelis suffering a constant torment of rocket and mortar fire from Gaza (the only occasion I can remember seeing a UN article doing so ) is actually used as a vehicle to defend Hamas as only replying to 'disproportionate' Israeli attacks.

Saturday, 1 September 2012

Iran has been making statements for years about the need to destroy
the 'cancerous tumour of Israel' ( to quote only the latest gem). It was argued in the past that Iran's statements were taken out of context, that it wasn't really threatening Israel. In the last year the threats to destroy Israel have come from so many different levels of government and the armed forces that no one can any longer deny they are being made.

So now people say that they don't mean what they say, that it's only bluster. To that we must look back in history.

When Hitler threatened to wipe out the jews in 'Mein Kampf', when the threat wasn't ignored, it was similarly described as bluster, as ravings of a fool.
Then Hitler said in 1939:

"If the world of international financial Jewry, both in and outside of
Europe, should succeed in plunging the Nations into another world war,
the result will not be the Bolshevization of the world and thus a
victory for Judaism. The result will be the extermination of the Jewish
race in Europe."

Hitler was deadly serious but he was not listened to and nearly all of europe's jews were killed.

In Israel much of the top military and intelligence services are locked in the 'concept', just as they were in the time of Bar-Lev, that a war with Iran is too costly, that there is time, will know when Iran goes for the breakout for the bomb, that Israel is in any case so powerful that Iran would never dare to attack it even if it had the bomb. As with Hitler, logic is not always Israel's enemies strong point.

They all forget what Liebermann has remembered in his 2001 comment, that the later you leave things, the less likely you are to do the job properly, the more likely the enemy will be able to recover. Leaving things so late may even mean missing the fact that a bomb has been built, assembled and delivered to Hezbollah to 'post'. A bomb could travel overland to Lebanon and then by ship until opposite Tel-Aviv and then delivered in the ultimate suicide bomber's mission in a rubber dinghy.

Israel and the USA could easily miss this whilst looking for the breakout in terms of Iran's attaching a bomb to a missile.

So what more justification does Israel need to act? What more convincing do Israelis need?

It is time for Netanyahu to stop procrastinating. Sanctions have not worked and the latest IAEA report that far from inhibiting Iran's nuclear efforts, Iran has 30% more centrifuges spinning than at the beginning of the year.

If Israel is not to face a middle east full unstable states, nuclear armed powers, at least one of which is bound to use its weapon in a future conflict with Israel then it must act now. Israel must attack Iran's nuclear installations with all the power it can muster.

Only if Israel is resolute will arabs think twice about attacking it. Israel must think less about the human rights of its enemies and more about the human rights of Israelis not to be attacked with missiles, not to have to sleep in bomb shelters every night.

Israel must restore deterrence to those which would attack it with missiles.

It is therefore time for Israel to make the ultimate threat to Iran,
that if it fires missiles indiscriminately into Israel's population
centers, then as per Chriraq's threat in 2005, it will face an
'overwhelming response'.

This message may come before or after Israel's attack on Iran.

Not for nothing did Rafsanjani call Israel a 'one bomb state'

Netanyahu must now either order the attack on Iran or face going down in history as the prime minister responsible for Israel's demise after being attacked with one or more Iranian (or arab) nuclear weapons.